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Intel has managed to offload its pay-TV startup OnCue, after deciding last year it would rather sell it off than try to launch the service itself.

Chipzilla's offshoot, now called Intel Media, has gone to Verizon Communications, the second-largest telco in the US, which plans to merge it into its existing internet telly offering.

The companies didn't disclose the financial terms of the deal, but they said in a statement that Verizon would be hanging on to the subsidiary's 350 or so employees and that the intellectual property rights and other assets of OnCue were a part of the deal. When the service went on the block last year, reports put the price tag at somewhere around $500m.

Verizon was suggested as a potential buyer in November last year, when other potential suitors were rumoured to include Samsung and Liberty Global. Intel was supposed to be launching OnCue itself, but new CEO Brian Kranich decided he wanted to focus on making sure the company's biggest earner, chips, made the transition from PCs to mobile devices.

The idea behind the service is to provide paid-for television over a high-speed internet connection and the system includes servers, set-top boxes and applications to get TV programmes onto tellies, mobes and fondleslabs. ®